Mridula Anand | Week 16: The Memory of Simpler Times
In honor of 8:00 a.m. tomorrow, when I will be taking the AP Spanish Language exam, my teacher,
Sra. Reid sent out a short google classroom post, similar to posts many of you have also been receiving
this week prior to your exams.
In this message to our class, she states “I’ll always look back and remember” this year, her first year getting the opportunity to teach this AP class. When I first saw this, I could not help but look back at my freshman year of high school. When I received my course schedule, I saw that I received Ms. Reid for Spanish 2, and remember my brother quoting that the class was “light.” To an extent, he was right, but more than the ease of the class is the memories that I have been able to make in this classroom.
My first two years of high school included a specific, designated place for this classroom to return to every single day. I went through these Spanish finals, humorous Spanish projects with my best friends, and even though these hours would have been more effectively spent retaining this knowledge of the Spanish language for my future self, currently struggling to hold a 20 second conversation, I would not trade these moments for anything. I think we all can agree that we wish to return back to the simpler days of freshman year, or even better, sophomore year where for most of us, the only AP test to worry about was world history.
And now, in a couple of years farther into the future, we all will be looking at the same memories and stress we went through in junior year, laughing at how this stress was nothing. This really goes to show how so much of our lives, our friends, and our personalities have been based on our experiences in school, and when I think about how high school will no longer be a pressing concern in our lives, it really seems crazy. Similar to how the classroom I have been in for Spanish my entire high school career, even this year, and the extent of my Spanish vocabulary and grammar has remained stagnant, the same is applied towards how ultimately, no matter how many memories we take away from high school, or how many years we have left of high school (Yes, I know we’re not seniors), the memory of our personality throughout these years will often stay the same, with only our perspectives on life shifted.
Hey Mridula! Honestly, me and my friends always question why we even bothered to complain about work from previous years when it was nothing compared to what we're doing now. It's human nature to only focus on the now and think that it entirely dictates the rest of our lives. It's funny because now that we're nearing the end of high school, it just fully processed that this is the end of a whole era. There is no grade above 12th and we'll finally be adults just like we once longed for. It made me realize that I really took granted of the memories I made back then, especially with my friends. I've always been looking forward that I couldn't stay in the present; now all I can remember is one class from each year. Still, I learned a lot about life in these years. High school has allowed me to encounter diverse groups of people and experiences that I hope continues as we all reach the next chapter of our lives. This post was really eye-opening! (P.S. I hope you did well on your AP Spanish exam.)
ReplyDeleteHi Mridula!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first began reading your blog I had a hard time connecting with it as I have never had Sra. Reid but after further reading and seeing your connections to the "simpler times" of freshman and sophomore year I felt I could relate to it greatly. Also, I truly agree with the idea of us being blinded by nostalgia that you reference of how we may consider junior year difficult and bad but in the future we will mainly focus on the fun parts of it and I think that was such an interesting topic. I love how you gave examples and anecdotes that were obviously about your personal experiences but you made it so others could greatly relate to you! Overall, I truly enjoyed reading your blog and I usually include something about how I look forward to reading your blog in the future but as this is our last week of writing/commenting on blogs I just wanted to thank you for all your writing throughout this semester that we were in the same cohort!
Hi Mirdula! I took 3 years of Spanish, and I completely agree with the fact that "the extent of my Spanish vocabulary and grammar has remained stagnant." Senora Reid as my Spanish teacher last year, and I definitely have some cherished memories from her class.I relate to your notion of having a constant place for you to return to in highschool. I've personally never had a repeating teacher, but I do find myself going back to the flexes of my favorite sophomore and freshmen year teachers. As people, we'v changed, but we still hold on to the past because it comforts us as we move on to the future.
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